To nurture means to care for and protect someone or something while they are growing. To nurture is to foster, to encourage, and to cultivate with a view to improving a situation or a person for the better. In a sales and marketing environment, the definition of nurturing is “marketing by constantly engaging with the clients”. It’s a long term, non-challenging strategy. Rather than actively selling, which can be potentially challenging, lead nurturing is considered to be an extremely effective strategy to convert your leads into customers.
What is a Lead Nurturing Strategy?
Lead nurturing is a process of developing and then maintaining customer relationships at each stage of the customer journey, generally by way of multi-touch marketing and communications messaging. It is the process of developing and reinforcing customer relationships.
Not all leads generated by marketing efforts are immediately sales ready. They may have shown an interest in a product or service but, typically, they have questions and concerns which need answering before the buyer journey can continue. This is where lead nurturing comes to play.
Through effective lead nurturing, your buyer gets to know who you are, what you offer, and how you can help their business via targeted content. Rather than pushing for a sale, it’s a method through which both parties get to know one another and gain a clear understanding of how the buyer can be helped and their challenges solved. Those doing the nurturing benefit from gaining a prospective customer’s trust, moving them from the top of the funnel to the bottom.
People buy people, and business relationships are no different in this regard. Relationships are built over time and through a variety of touch points. Nurturing allows trust, loyalty, and brand confidence to be established in an approach where the customer is treated with respect.
How to Achieve Lead nurturing
One of the best ways to build relationships is by telephone. Digital marketing always has its place, but you really get to know people and their needs/challenges by having conversations which allow you to get under the skin of a project and to understand objectives and requirements at a detailed level. Some say content is king, at CPB UK we believe conversation is king and we are confident that investing in telemarketing, alongside a number of other marcomms elements, builds pipeline. Expert telemarketing agents will add substantial value to a marketing campaign. Making the initial calls and doing the groundwork, sifting through a pool of potential customers, and providing customers with only the best warm prospects for their sales team to follow up.
Initial telemarketing can then be combined with digital marketing techniques and, depending on your product and prospect, even a direct mail approach. A broad, multi-touch marketing approach gives you the best chance of engaging with your prospects on a variety of levels and to build trust over a period of time. Positive engagements will develop your relationship, building trust and providing a pathway to sales conversions.
Effective Lead Nurturing Tactics
According to Hubspot there are seven effective lead nurturing tactics:
Targeted content: Tailor intriguing, entertaining, and delightful content to target audience members so you can identify the most-qualified leads.
Multi-channel lead nurturing: Reach and nurture your audience where they are – on multiple channels – rather than just email.
Multiple Touches: Boost touches with a mix of content types and channels to increase your interactions and engagement among target audience members.
Timely Follow Ups: Follow up with your leads in a timely manner to keep them engaged and interested as well as keep your brand top of mind.
Personalised Emails: Personalize your emails (and all lead nurturing tactics, when possible) to promote customer retention.
Lead Scoring: Implement a lead scoring strategy to help you determine which leads you should focus your time on.
Sales and Marketing Alignment: Align sales and marketing teams to improve your lead nurturing tactics and boost customer retention.
Go Forth and Nurture
Choose your lead nurturing partner wisely. Select a company that will actively engage, support, and build meaningful relationships with prospective customers, by providing them with appropriate and relevant content and information at every stage of the buyer’s journey.
At CPB UK, we nurture prospects to provide warm, BANTa qualified leads to our customers.
At CPB UK, we deliver sales solutions.
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